Accelerated a vehicle quickly by pressing the gas pedal hard; or shot at someone with a gun.
From 'gun' (the weapon, from Old Norse 'gunnr' meaning war/battle), with '-ed' suffix. The verb 'to gun' originally meant to shoot, and evolved in the 20th century to also mean accelerating a vehicle's engine.
The phrase 'gunned for' (meaning to pursue someone) comes from hunting terminology and creates an interesting metaphor—we use weapon words in everyday language to describe competitive ambition, which shows how deeply violence and competition are linguistically connected.
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